In conversation, I have heard one of my colleagues using the noun « niveau » in a way that seems to deviate from its usual meaning:

Hm... Niveau mariage, elle sait tout à fait de quoi elle parle...

The person in question was dishing out advice on everything marriage, even though she herself is far from being marriage material... Then, my colleague whispered as a joking, sarcastic jab that:

{My interpretation}: She’s the last person I’d turn to for advice, when it comes to marriage...

At least, this is how I interpreted her remark. I wonder if this particular use of « niveau » corresponds to "when it comes to" or something similar? How do you use « niveau » like this in other examples?

2 Answers
2

Your interpretation is right, but the sarcastic aspect is not necessarily a part of the expression (in your example it seems to be). I think it's a casual way of using the expression "au niveau de" which is synonym to "en terme de", "concernant":

I find it interesting that this "niveau" expression takes away a definite article. By the way, do you think it's necessary to place a comma: "Je n'y connais rien, niveau politique"?
– Con-gras-tue-les-chiensMay 9 '17 at 14:00

1

+1 for mentioning that sarcasm isn't necessarily a part of the expression (btw, should the "that" following "aspect" in your first sentence be there?). ... To @Alone-zee : I can’t find this abbreviated use of niveau discussed in dictionaries either, but it kind of reminds me of how “du côté de” (in the sense of “Sous l'aspect de, relativement à” discussed in a remark near the bottom of this TLFi entry) is often found whittled down to “du côté” and even all the way to just “C/côté” in casual speech.
– Papa PouleMay 9 '17 at 14:34

Contemporary, if you consider anything after WWII say to be such. But clearly not used before, yes. And also yes, the comma would be indispensable if you do away with the original little helper words.
– George MMay 9 '17 at 18:41

So I would only use (au)niveau with that sense in informal speech. Still informal but not debated would be the use of question with the meaning of en ce qui concerne/au sujet de.(TLF Fam. Question + nom en appos. avec omission de l'art. déf.Question église, mariage, santé. Beaucoup de libérés vivent par deux − non pas (...) question relations sexuelles − non! mais pour s'entraider (Dussort, Journal, 1930, dép. par G. Esnault, 1953, p. 6).
A still colloquial but less informal way to express this would be to use the word rayon. (TLF − Au fig. Espace, domaine où s'exerce l'activité de quelqu'un ou de quelque chose.)*

@Alone-zee Indeed I was in the process of editing my answer to add it, after I'd read SimonDéchamps's comment.
– LaureMay 9 '17 at 12:09

@Alone-zee It's an exact synonym in casual French. But as Laure wrote, the origin of "niveau" should keep it for situations where you compare "levels" of things.
– DestalMay 9 '17 at 12:10

"Au niveau de (suivi d'un nom abstrait)": It just so happens that in my post I wrote "everything marriage" which is an expression used in everyday conversation but likely to be shunned by purists. The "niveau + un nom abstrait" construction may well be close to this "everything / all things + un nom abstrait" expression in English in terms of construction.
– Con-gras-tue-les-chiensMay 9 '17 at 13:15